The "Tip Jar"

Pressure and educating geese are everything in today’s waterfowl hunting! Don’t show the geese everything you have in one hunt, make them earn it. Also remember, you don’t have to shoot at a goose to educate it, anytime you are hunting and show the birds your decoys, calling, flagging and location, they are becoming conditioned to the way you hunt ....switch it up! A season doesn’t happen in one hunt! - Scott Threinen

When hunting traffic geese (geese that aren't using your field) I use reaction based calling. What I mean by that is that I will use a bunch of different sounds and combinations to get a reaction. Once you notice a reaction, stay with that note or combination to finish them. -Craig Rosenau

When hunting pressured geese, try to remember the little things. Geese can see about 3 times as good as a human, so all the things that you don’t think the geese will notice..... they probably will. If the geese are pressured the littlest things will tip them off and may cause them not to finish or decoy at all! So next time try to concentrate on your hide and keep the field and decoys looking as natural as possible!
- Aaron Eberle

When hunting ducks, no matter what the condtions are always try add some type of realistic motion to your spread. Whether its by a jerk string, spinners, pulsators or swimmers, ducks are constantly moving around feeding, splashing, throwing water and stretching their wings. Ripple from the wind is just not enough these days. You have to put in the extra effort to create movement to be successfull day in and day out! - Nate Ruebhausen

I try and learn something new everytime I go out hunting. It helps me stay focused throughout the hunt and also helps me when hunting gets tough. If I've made mental notes on what's worked in certain situations in the past, I can use those same tactics when those conditions present themselves again. - Craig Rosenau

Come up with names for all the two-note and other excited sequences you use calling geese and discuss them with your buddies. Sometimes it’s not the guy making the sound that sees what the birds are responding too, especially when you’re dealing with multiple groups of birds at once. Just being able to quickly tell your buddy to repeat an effective sequence can sometimes make all the difference in the world. - Al Penheiter

When hunting early season geese, try thinking about education. Don’t shoot into big flocks and don’t show them all your tricks right off the bat. Try using lesser quality decoys, or maybe less decoys than normal. Don’t flag or call too much if you don’t have too. That way as the season progresses and the geese get smarter, you always have something new to show them. Ex, more/ better looking decoys, more calling and flagging. Even as new birds enter your area, those new birds are gonna look to those local geese to see what is safe and what isn’t! -Aaron Eberle

When hunting late season pressured geese in the snow, make sure and focus in on concealment. Try to avoid tire tracks and footprints, they both give away human activity and both can ruin your hunt. Stay low profile, downsize the spread, keep the field in its natural state, and hunt alive! - Scott Threinen

Have 100% confidence that birds actions are direct reactions to your call or flag and not just “geese being geese”. I get to hunt with a lot of great hunters and the #1 thing that sets them apart from the average guy is not necessarily their ability on the call, but their confidence that it was their call that “changed” the birds. - Al Pinheiter